Funeral Planning Sydney: A Holistic Guide to Creating a Meaningful Farewell
Planning a funeral in Sydney may feel overwhelming, especially if you are grieving or navigating a new diagnosis, hospital system, or aged care environment. Life Rites Funerals approaches funeral planning as more than a checklist—it is a continuum of care that begins before death, holds you through the first stunned hours after, and stays with you into grief and remembrance.
This guide walks through every stage of funeral planning in New South Wales—from pre-need plans and legal requirements to home vigils, cool plates, ceremony design, costs, and aftercare. It is written for people who want something more personal and conscious than a standard package: those drawn to holistic, green, family-led, faith-based or secular rites, and those looking for a funeral director who will honour culture, identity, and community.
Throughout, you will see practical suggestions, examples from real families, and clear points where Life Rites may walk alongside you—through end-of-life doula care, home-based vigils, modern funeral direction, grief circles and counselling.
What Does Funeral Planning Mean Today?
Traditional funeral planning tends to focus on logistics: book a chapel, choose a coffin, confirm a time. For many families, this feels too narrow. They are also asking:
How do we honour their values, culture, and identity?
How do we involve children, elders, or community in a gentle, real way?
How do we care for their body with respect—perhaps at home?
How do we avoid feeling rushed or pressured into choices we later regret?
Life Rites approaches funeral planning in Sydney as an integrated process that includes: ceremony design, care of the body, emotional support, legal logistics, and long-term grief care. The team is led by founder and director Victoria Spence, a mortality doula, celebrant and counsellor with deep experience across holistic, family-led, and community-based funerals.
Rather than offering one “standard” funeral, the focus is on creating a rite that feels true: whether that is a simple direct cremation with a later memorial, a natural burial among trees, a home vigil in the family living room, or a traditional chapel service held with utmost care.
The Planning Spectrum: Pre-Need, At-Need and Aftercare
Funeral planning does not only begin when death occurs. For many families, the most empowering way to approach it is as a continuum:
Pre-Need Planning (Planning Ahead)
Pre-need funeral planning in Sydney may happen when a person:
Is drafting or updating a will
Receives a serious or life-limiting diagnosis
Wants their environmental, spiritual, or cultural values reflected in their farewell
Benefits of pre-planning include:
Emotional clarity: Loved ones are not left guessing what the person would have wanted.
Reduced conflict: Conversations beforehand help reduce family disagreements later.
Financial transparency: Key cost decisions are discussed clearly, so families are not making rushed choices under pressure.
Life Rites supports pre-planning through end-of-life planning sessions, doula support, and guidance around documentation and ceremony wishes.
At-Need Planning (When a Death Has Occurred)
At-need planning happens in the hours and days after someone dies. This stage is often characterised by shock, exhaustion, and urgent decisions. Common problems:
Not knowing who to call first
Feeling rushed into package choices
Worrying about how to honour religious, cultural, or community expectations
Life Rites focuses on slowing the process down enough for families to breathe, ask questions, and make choices aligned with their person’s life and values. Testimonials repeatedly describe feeling “held”, “not rushed”, and able to proceed at their own pace.
Aftercare and Ongoing Grief Support
Funeral planning does not end when the flowers are taken home. Grief unfolds over months and years. Life Rites offers:
Guidance and counselling for individuals and families
Monthly grief circles led by a qualified grief therapist, mentioned by families as “invaluable” to their healing
Community events, talks, and programs that keep conversations about death, dying and grief open and supported
If you are thinking ahead or have just lost someone, you may arrange a gentle planning conversation with Life Rites by calling 0421 200 250 or using the contact form on the Contact page.
First 24 Hours in NSW: What To Do When Someone Dies
The first day after a death often brings practical questions alongside deep emotion. While every situation is unique, these are general pathways in New South Wales:
If Death Occurs in Hospital, Hospice, or Aged Care
Staff organise a doctor to issue a Medical Certificate of Cause of Death.
You may let the facility know you have chosen Life Rites Funerals as your funeral director, and the team arranges transfer into their care.
If you wish to bring your person home for a vigil, Life Rites may support you in arranging this safely and legally.
If Death Occurs at Home and Is Expected
For someone receiving palliative care at home:
Contact the treating doctor or palliative care team so they may attend or issue necessary documentation.
When you are ready, contact Life Rites to discuss timing and options—keeping them at home for a vigil, or transferring them gently to the Hurstville funeral home.
Families supported in this way often describe feeling “held and guided” and grateful for the chance to say goodbye in their own time.
If Death Is Sudden, Traumatic, or Unexpected
In these situations, the police and the Coroner may be involved. The body may be transferred to a coronial facility for examination. Once clearance is given, Life Rites liaises with the Coroner’s office to bring your person into their care and guide you gently through the additional paperwork and timeframes that may apply.
Legal and Administrative Requirements in New South Wales
Funeral planning in Sydney involves several legal and administrative steps. Life Rites helps families navigate these quietly in the background so that you may focus on being with each other.
Death Registration and Certificates
In NSW, a death is registered with the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. Your funeral director usually handles this, using information you provide about your person’s life and family.
An Official Death Certificate may then be ordered, which is used for estate, banking, superannuation and other legal matters.
Cremation and Burial Regulations
Cremation and burial in NSW are regulated to ensure health, safety, and respectful standards. Key elements include:
A doctor or coroner completes the required medical documentation.
Additional cremation forms are completed before a cremation proceeds.
Burial may take place in public cemeteries, denominational grounds, or (in specific circumstances) natural burial grounds that meet regulatory requirements.
Life Rites is a member of the Australian Funeral Directors Association and part of broader natural death advocacy networks, which helps ensure practices remain ethical, compliant, and aligned with best practice in holistic death care.
Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) and Complex Circumstances
For families navigating Voluntary Assisted Dying, sudden or traumatic deaths, or complex medical and legal circumstances, additional documentation and coordination may be required. Life Rites has specific support pathways for VAD and complex deaths, integrating clinical requirements with sensitive ceremonial care.
If you are unsure about forms or legal steps, ask the Life Rites team to walk through the paperwork with you slowly, so you do not feel pressure to understand everything at once.
The Life Rites Holistic Approach to Funeral Planning
Life Rites describes its work as “walking with you during life’s hardest times – with compassion, guidance and experience.”
Rather than separating end-of-life care, funeral direction, and grief support, Life Rites views them as one continuous journey.
Continuity of Care: Before, During and After
Before death: mortality doula support, end-of-life planning, conversations about ceremony and legacy.
During the days around death: care of the body, home vigils, coordination with hospitals, aged care or coronial services, ceremony design.
After the funeral: guidance and counselling, grief circles, referrals to community resources, follow-up support.
Inclusive, Community-Rooted Care
Life Rites regularly supports:
LGBTQIA+ communities seeking an affirming, safe funeral home
Indigenous families and communities
Culturally and linguistically diverse families, including Macedonian, Greek, Chinese and many others
Families who prefer secular or multi-faith ceremonies, or who want traditional religious rites held with added warmth and creativity.
Dedicated service pages explore these areas in more detail, including LGBTQIA+ funerals, funerals for Indigenous Australian families and communities, and faith-based or inter-faith funerals.
Choosing the Right Type of Funeral or Ceremony
Sydney families may choose from a wide range of rites, from conventional chapel services to home-based or outdoor ceremonies. Life Rites offers, among others:
Green Funerals and Natural Burial
For James, whose deep respect for nature shaped his life, his daughter chose a natural burial at Wollongong Lawn Cemetery’s bushland section. A natural fibre shroud, sustainably crafted coffin, and a ceremony among trees created a farewell that was “gentle on the earth and rich in meaning.”
Site-Specific and Community-Based Funerals
Ceremonies may be held in community libraries, gardens, arts spaces or hospitality venues. For James, his funeral at Marrickville Library Pavilion became a “living expression of the connections he cherished,” with Life Rites handling logistics so the family could simply be present.
Family-Led and Home Funerals
Some families prefer to lead the ceremony themselves or to care for their person at home before burial or cremation. Life Rites provides the legal, practical and ceremonial scaffolding, while family and community take a central role in speaking, holding ritual, and tending the body.
Memorials and Living Wakes
Memorial services or living wakes (held while a person is still alive) give flexibility in timing, location, and format—particularly helpful for large communities or interstate families.
Traditional Funerals
Traditional chapel or church services may still be deeply personal. For Gary, a proud Rabbitohs supporter, a familiar chapel, team colours and a communal song of “Glory, Glory to South Sydney” created a memorable, traditional yet highly individual farewell.
Care at Home: Home Vigils and Cool Plates
One of the most distinctive aspects of funeral planning with Life Rites is the ability to keep your person at home after death, with professional support and safe cooling technology.
What Is a Home Vigil?
A home vigil is a period—often one to three days—where the person remains at home, usually in a special room or corner set up with flowers, photos, candles or other meaningful objects. Family and friends may visit, sit quietly, talk, sing, pray, or simply be with them.
In Margaret’s case, she remained in the living room of the home she had loved for over 50 years. Her family described being able to wash and dress her, bring flowers from her garden, and invite loved ones to say goodbye without a timetable.
How Cool Plates Support Home Care
A cool plate (sometimes called a cooling bed or cool bed) is a discreet, refrigerated platform placed beneath the body to maintain safe temperatures during a home vigil. Life Rites:
Delivers and sets up the cool plate
Teaches families how to keep the environment comfortable and safe
Checks in regularly and adjusts arrangements as needed
The option of cool plates and home vigils is explored in more detail in Life Rites’ services and blog content.
Funeral Costs and Financial Transparency in Sydney
Talking about money during grief can feel confronting, yet it is a central part of funeral planning. Life Rites prioritises clear, customisable and transparent costing so families understand exactly what they are choosing.
Many testimonials mention reasonable, clear costs and the absence of pressure to add unwanted items.
Main Components of Funeral Costs
While every funeral is different, common cost areas include:
Professional funeral director fees: coordination, paperwork, care of the body, transport, staff on the day.
Mortuary care and preparation: washing, dressing, viewing preparation.
Venue or chapel hire: Life Rites’ Hurstville chapel or external churches, crematorium chapels, community venues, or site-specific locations.
Cremation or burial fees: charged by the crematorium or cemetery.
Coffins, caskets or shrouds: from eco cardboard and woven caskets to traditional timber and steel caskets.
Celebrant and musicians: Life Rites celebrants or external priests, ministers, and musicians.
Flowers, printed materials and audio visual: floral arrangements, order-of-service booklets, photo slideshows, live streaming.
Life Rites’ Transparent Costing Model
Clear itemised quotes rather than rigid templates
Options for direct cremation, small intimate services, large community events, and everything in betwee
Flexible opportunities for family participation to help manage both meaning and cost (for example, family-led decorating, music, or eulogies).
Personalisation and Ritual: Designing a Meaningful Rite
A funeral, memorial, or wake is not only an event—it is a rite of passage that may shape how grief unfolds. Life Rites is known for ceremonies that feel “as if the celebrant knew our person”, “not default”, and “uniquely us.”
Choosing the Venue
Options may include:
Life Rites’ intimate Hurstville chapel
Crematorium chapels around Sydney
Churches, temples, mosques or other sacred sites
Community libraries, halls, gardens or arts venues
Family homes or backyards
Life Rites’ blog on where you may hold a funeral ceremony in Sydney explores many of these options in detail and shares creative examples
Ceremony Structure and Content
A ceremony might include:
Welcome and acknowledgement of Country
Storytelling and eulogies (sometimes collaboratively written with Life Rites celebrants)
Quiet reflection or prayer
Music, poetry, or readings
Symbolic acts such as placing flowers, lighting candles, or decorating the coffin together
Open mic sharing, often noted by families as deeply healing.
Life Rites also provides resources and blog posts on writing and delivering a eulogy, and what to write on funeral cards, helping those who may be nervous about speaking.
Cultural, Faith and Identity-Based Rituals
From Macedonian Orthodox traditions and Aboriginal smoking ceremonies to secular rituals that honour LGBTQIA+ identities, Life Rites researches, consults and co-creates with families to ensure rites feel authentic and respectful.
Coffins, Caskets, Shrouds and Urns: Objects of Care
The objects you choose are part of the story you are telling.
Coffins and Caskets
Life Rites offers a curated range of:
Eco cardboard, woven, woollen and timber options
Traditional coffins and caskets in various timbers and finishes
Custom art coffins and decorated options for families who want to paint, write or collage messages.
Shrouds and Shrouded Cremation
Shrouds—textile wrappings made from materials such as calico, hemp, linen, silk or wool—offer an alternative to conventional coffins, especially for green funerals and natural burials.
Life Rites stocks several shroud options and has written about what a shroud is and how shrouded cremation works in the blog and product sections.
Urns and Ongoing Memorialisation
For cremation, families may choose from a range of urns and keepsakes—from simple, understated designs to crafted or locally made pieces. The choice often reflects how and where the ashes may be kept or scattered.
Emotional and Community Support: Counselling and Grief Circles
Grief is not something to “get over”; it is something to be accompanied through. Life Rites integrates emotional support into funeral planning and aftercare.
Guidance and Counselling
The Guidance and Counselling service offers one-on-one or family sessions to explore grief, meaning-making, and the ongoing relationship with the person who has died.
Grief Circles and Community Events
A regular Grief Circle, led by a qualified therapist, offers group support after the funeral. One family wrote that this space “was invaluable in enabling my healing journey,” and highlighted how Life Rites understands grief continues long after the memorial.
Life Rites also hosts and participates in community programs, talks, and performance events around death, dying and grief, such as Grief Works and other public programs.
Step 1: Initial Contact
Phone call or email—sometimes in the middle of the night, sometimes months before.
Immediate priority is safety and reassurance: what is happening, who is present, what support you already have.
Planning With Life Rites: Step-by-Step
While each family’s journey is unique, funeral planning with Life Rites often follows a clear, gentle process.
Step 2: Stabilise the First 24 Hours
Clarify whether the death is expected, hospital-based, at home, or coronial.
Coordinate transfer into Life Rites’ care or discuss a home vigil.
Offer simple, practical guidance so the family feels less overwhelmed.
Step 3: Listening and Discovering the Story
Meet in person at the Hurstville funeral home, at your home, or via video.
Listen deeply to stories about the person—their life, identity, beliefs, community, and what matters most.
Begin shaping ceremony options, location ideas, and body care choices.
Step 4: Design, Budget and Plan
Discuss ceremony structure, speakers, music, visuals, and any cultural or spiritual elements.
Review itemised costs and adjust choices to align with your budget and priorities.
Coordinate external providers (venues, clergy, musicians, caterers) as needed.
Step 5: Ceremony Day
The Life Rites team manages timing, logistics, and technical details so you may focus on being present.
Celebrants hold the space with warmth, confidence, and a deep sense of the person being honoured.
Step 6: After the Funeral
Return of ashes, if applicable, arranged respectfully and promptly.
Invitations to grief circles or counselling, and suggestions for ongoing rituals or anniversaries.
Areas We Serve
Frequently Asked Questions
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You may begin planning at any time. Some people start when they are well and simply want their values documented. Others begin at diagnosis, during treatment, or when a loved one moves into aged care. Even if death has already occurred, it is not “too late” to shape a meaningful, personal farewell.
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Pre-arranged means the wishes are documented and a plan is created, but payment happens later.
Pre-paid involves a financial product or agreement where money is set aside for future funeral costs.
Life Rites supports both by helping clarify wishes and connecting you with appropriate financial structures for pre-paid options if desired.
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If death is expected, contact the treating doctor or palliative care team. When the medical certificate is organised, you may then contact Life Rites to discuss whether to bring your person into their care or to create a home vigil supported by cool plate technology. In sudden or unexpected deaths, emergency services guide the next steps and the Coroner may be involved.
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Yes, with the right support and adherence to health and safety guidelines, home vigils are both legal and deeply healing for many families. The key is safe cooling, timing, and appropriate documentation. Life Rites has extensive experience in safely supporting home vigils across Sydney.
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In Sydney, funerals commonly take place within one to two weeks, depending on venue availability, coronial processes (if applicable), and family circumstances. With home vigils, the body is usually kept at home for a shorter period (often up to three days) before burial or cremation.
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Yes. Natural or green burial options are available in several NSW cemeteries, including areas with bushland regeneration. Life Rites has practical experience arranging natural burials, including choosing shrouds and eco-coffins, and liaising with cemetery staff.
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No. Life Rites supports families across the spectrum—deeply religious, gently spiritual, staunchly secular, inter-faith, questioning, or unsure. The focus is on what feels authentic for the person and their community, whether that is a church funeral, a nature-based ceremony, or a hybrid of the two.
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Life Rites is recognised as an LGBTQIA+ affirming funeral home. Many testimonials speak to the sense of safety, dignity, and celebration offered, particularly in gay, trans and queer communities. Care is taken to honour chosen family, pronouns, and identity at every stage—from paperwork and obituary wording to ceremony content.
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Disagreement is common, especially under stress. Life Rites practitioners are skilled facilitators who may hold family meetings, clarify the wishes of the person who has died (where known), and help find a path that respects key values and relationships.
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Families frequently report appreciating Life Rites’ clarity around fees, options, and the absence of pressure to add extras. Itemised quotes are provided, and staff are happy to walk through each line so you understand what matters most for your situation and budget.
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Life Rites is based at 118 Durham Street, Hurstville, but serves families across Greater Sydney, including the Inner West, Sutherland Shire, Eastern Suburbs and beyond. The team may also support regional or interstate families with planning when a funeral or memorial is taking place in Sydney.
Next Steps: Talk With Life Rites
Funeral planning does not need to be rushed, nor does it need to be done alone.
If you are planning ahead, you may start with a conversation about values, options and documentation.
If someone is approaching end-of-life, you may explore doula support, home vigil possibilities, or how to weave ceremony into their final weeks.
If a death has just occurred, you may reach out at any hour to speak with a member of the Life Rites team and decide the very next step only.
Call Life Rites Funerals on 0421 200 250, or visit the Contact page to arrange a gentle, obligation-free planning conversation.
Looking for another specific service?
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End-of-Life Doula Services
We give practical and emotional support to people living with a terminal illness. An end-of-life or death doula provides guidance through what is often a difficult and complex time for everyone involved.
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Funeral Direction
We work with a wide-range of people and offer a wide-range of services to help you make the best and most appropriate choices for you and for all involved.
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Home Vigil and Cool Plate
A Life Rites practitioner will talk you through the set up and use of the cooling beds and how best to support all involved during this time. We can deliver the bed to your home, walk through the preparation of your family member with you and be available to oversee the vigil as needed.